Turkey leading the list of censorship in Twitter’s transparency report

Turkey has become, once again, the leading country among the countries that have censored and requested removal of content from the Twitter most, according to a transparency report covering between Jan. 1- Jun.30, 2017.

Twitter has stated in its report that the removal requests include worldwide legal requests they have received from governments and other authorized reporters to remove or withhold content. According to transparency report, Turkey has made 554 of 2,526 total account information requests, and 1,995 of 8,359 total removal requests made by all other countries across the world.

According to data given by Twitter, Turkey has competed with Russia in censorship and the number of Turkey’s request for removal with court orders has realised as 715, while Russia had no such court orders.

Twitter’s data shows that Turkish government agencies and Turkish police have demanded 1,995 censorship, as Russian government agencies and Russian police have requested 1,213 censorship in the same period.

The percentage of some content demanded by Turkey to be withheld by Twitter has been 11 while Russia’s request for that has been 55 percent. Turkey has also reported 9,289 accounts, while Russia has reported just 1,225 accounts. Turkey has requested Twitter to withhold 204 accounts as Russia has requested 87 accounts to be withheld.

Turkey has also requested Twitter to withhold 497 tweets while Russia has demanded 566 tweets to be withheld in the same period.

According to transparency report, Turkey has made 554 of 2,526 total account information requests, and 1,995 of 8,359 total removal requests made by all other countries across the world.

Turkish Interior Ministry has stated on August 7, 2016 that 3,710 people have been the subject of legal proceedings and 1,656 were arrested between March and Augustus 2016 due to social media posts.As of the end of 2016, at least 10,000 people were under investigation on committing alleged crime of making terrorist propaganda and insulting senior state officials on social media.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in December 2016, 3,710 social media users had been investigated in the last six months of 2016, of whom 1,656 were arrested. A total of 1,203 of those investigations resulted in releases on probation.

Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has showed that 284 journalists and media workers are now in jailsas of September 18, 2017, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 259 are arrested pending trial, only 25 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 135 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey.

Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the controversial coup attempt. Turkey’s Contemporary Journalists’ Association (ÇGD) recently announced that more than 900 press cards were cancelled.